The present invention relates to a voice guidance system and electronic equipment employing the same, and relates to technique to be effectively applied to a television set, etc. which can perform voice guidance to the operation instruction of a menu item by means of a remote controller, etc.
For the benefit of a visually-impaired person or the like, technique is provided for guiding with voice the contents of an operation command to electronic equipment, such as a television set, a DVD player, a copying machine, or a printer. Patent Literature 1 discloses a device in which setting items of operation items of the device are arranged as a hierarchical menu of hierarchical structure, and a desired setting item in the hierarchy is pointed with a cursor key and selected with a determining key. This device is configured so as to notify an operation instruction and its result by means of a sound icon, an operation sound, and a voice, with different attributes of the sound according to a situation. Accordingly, it becomes possible to operate the device, easily and reliably, without employing visual sense.
With respect to voice guidance, Patent Literature 2 discloses technique on speech peed control of the voice guidance in a navigation device. That is, when there is no time margin for performing voice guidance relative to pass time required for a practical vehicle to pass through between the points under the route guidance, the present technique performs control so as to accelerate the speech speed of the voice guidance.
(Patent Literature 1) Published Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. 200332-323081
(Patent Literature 2) Published Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. 2008-39623